In the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society and this domination continued into the 20th century. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tambura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal. The Azande are the third- or fourth-largest ethnic group in South Sudan (either the Azande or the Bari are third-largest). The non-Nilotic Azande people, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century, established the region's largest state. During the period from the 15th to the 19th centuries, tribal migrations, largely from the area of Bahr el Ghazal, brought these peoples to their modern locations. The Nilotic peoples-the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk and others-first entered South Sudan sometime before the 10th century. It is a United Nations member state, a member state of the African Union, and a member state of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011.

Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005.

Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. The modern states of South Sudan and Sudan were part of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, later being governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence was achieved in 1956. South Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jabal. South Sudan is bordered by Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, the Central African Republic to the west, and Sudan to the north. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city the capital city is planned to be moved to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future. It is also part of the North Africa UN subregion. South Sudan ( i / ˌ s aʊ θ s uː ˈ d æ n / or / s uː ˈ d ɑː n /), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in the east-central African region of northeastern Africa.

Uncharted waters online map 2019